Author: Superpaige (Page 21 of 180)

First day of school 2013

August 21, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

How could school be starting and summer over? Didn’t school JUST BARELY get out?

Neither I nor the kids were quite ready for school to start, but start it did.

To help the kids get ready, I took each of them on date with shopping. Well, John just got the date with Mom and Dad. He went shopping with me another time and got some school clothes then. It was fun to see what they would pick out. Megan, my least fashion conscious, picked out a single t-shirt. When I pressed her, she also got a pair of shoes. I should be happy that I don’t have to spend much on her, but I kind of wish she would branch out a bit.

This morning we had our traditional breakfast at the bus stop.

The kids have fun goofing around with their friends while the moms commiserate or cheer that it’s back to school time.

I always print up a little sign that says the year so we can look back and remember our first day of school.

The bus came at a weird time and not to the regular place. One of the more assertive moms talked to him to ask if they could please have the same two stops that we had last time, but that dang bus driver held his ground. “There will only be one stop” he kept saying. This is very frustrating. It’s bad enough that they make the kids get on the bus at 7:18 (School starts at 8:00, so what are they doing for the extra half hour at school? goofing off, or freezing in the winter), but now they have to walk a 1/4 mile down to the bus stop? Argh! But at least they haven’t taken away our elementary bus. The junior high bus was taken away from us several years ago, and I have had a big hassle trying to get our carpool figured out. BUT, I didn’t want this post to be complaining about the bus.

It’s bittersweet when school starts again. On the one hand, I feel like I have SO much time, now that I get up early and get the kids off to school, I always make big goals, like this is when I’m really going to get organized or work out every day and all that. In reality, by the time you clean up the morning dishes, do some laundry, exercise and take a shower, a big chunk of the day is gone. Once you add in volunteer work, planning or carrying out your church calling, writing your missionary and some time online, MORE of the day is gone. Then by the time you get dinner planned and pull a few weeds. it seems it’s 2:30 and they start coming home.

I also teach my chime choir two days a week, and for the past two years I’ve substituted off and on. I haven’t decided if I am going to keep subbing or not. I don’t love doing it, and it is kind of a stressor for me, making me not as patient or kind with my family, plus, with my carpool duties and chime choir and piano lessons after school, there isn’t a single day that I would be available to stay at school until 3:30 when the pm kids get out.

There is a sadness that I’m not the one in charge of my kids all day. I like having the freedom to take them somewhere, or do things with them. Now they are in school and their teachers become the important people. I miss those days when they were little and we had no schedules.

Megan is a senior this year. She’s been working hard on her 3-d AP art projects this summer (there were 12). I can’t believe all the exciting changes that she has ahead of her. And I’m a little scared. She has no idea what she wants to do, where she wants to go to school, and we need to help her decide.

John is in 4th grade. Fourth Grade! How is that possible?

Natalie is in 9th grade. I think she’s kind of excited to be the big dog in middle school.

Jenna is 7th grade, new middle schooler.

She actually went to school for a half day on Monday, to learn the ropes of middle school and all that.

Here she is with her friend, Brittan.

When the day was done and they came home from school, at least no one came home in tears, or declaring that they hate school, or have no friends, or got lost, or what have you, so I guess the day was a success.

One down, 179 to go.

Here’s to many more years together

August 18, 2013 / Superpaige / 2 Comments

It’s our Anniversary today. August 18th. We have been married 21 years!

Together we have five children.

This week will be our 15th “First” day of school with our kids. That’s about 100 parent teacher conference visits and hundreds of hours of helping with homework.
We have eaten roughly 7,350 dinners together. Some were stellar, some were not so stellar. Some have been downright terrible.

We have been to approximately 1,090 sacrament meetings together. I’m of course estimating here, because some of the time Ryan is out of town, or someone is sick, or I have missed church because of bells. Some of those were before we were married.

Together we have weathered 5 job changes, 8 months of unemployment, we have built two houses, and moved 5 times. We have gone through 45 months of pregnancy.

During our marriage, we have gone through 7 cars. We started with my Mazda GLC and his 67 Galaxy, then bought our 1990 Nissan truck (which we still have). As kids came, our cars got bigger. The Camry that we bought from Vicki and Chuck, then the 1998 Dodge Caravan Van that we later passed on to my sister and her family. Then we got a 2003 Suburban, and finally our “new” car, the 2011(? I think) Kia. (We do also insure an 88 Camry that was gifted us by the grandparents, but we don’t ever drive it, so I hardly count it as OUR car. It’s more of THE KIDS’ car). With those cars came many frustrations and car repairs, but no accidents to speak of.

We have hosted 11 exchange students from four different countries.

We have sent one missionary out. He’s been out almost 3 months now.

We are not perfect, neither one of us, but we are determined. Ryan has been supportive of me through emotional outbursts, angry spats, times of overwhelming stress, and patient with me even when I am determined to follow through with some crazy or wonderful idea. I have tried to also be supportive of him with his work demands, oft times frequent traveling, his wiring and rewiring of the house, the abundance of gadgets and all that is Ryan.

We like to have a good time, and have hosted hundreds of barbeques and parties. 71 birthdays for the just the kids!

He has been supportive of me in my many hobbies and endeavors, which include 6 plays, 7 Christmas concerts with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, 17 concerts of the Bells on Temple Square, and one year so far of teaching the elementary chime choir at school. Of course, I have also taken him on many different trips that I have won, including several with the family to Disneyland, San Diego, Mesa Verde, and two trips for just the two of us to Cancun and New York City.

I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else.

We aren’t real consistent on Anniversary gifts. One year we both got each other watches. We usually try to have a get away or even just a date to celebrate. This year things are quite hectic, as he’s been out of town this week, and I’ve had to do 4 shows this week, so there wasn’t much celebrating going on, but, I came home late last night after our closing night at the Scera to find he had bought me roses and scissors. The roses are so pretty and so sweet, but the scissors are an even nicer gift. Seriously. I was rifling through a drawer on Saturday complaining that we had lost or broken all of our scissors, and I had none. He heard my complaints, and bought a 3-pack of scissors for me. I guess the gift for 21 years is scissors.

I am forever grateful that he loved me enough to be patient while I fell in love with him, and he’s been patient with me from then on. Thank you, Ryan, for sharing these years with me. Here’s to many, many more years together.

Some call it retro. Some call it art. Some call it junk. Not sure what we call it, but it’s done.

August 13, 2013 / Superpaige / 2 Comments

Megan has been working on several art projects this summer. It seems she has to do a dozen projects BEFORE school even starts for this AP 3-d art class (just a tip, don’t ever let your kids take AP art. It will take ALL their time and kill a few grades in other classes.) Well, summer is winding down and the projects are not all finished, but she is making progress.

Somehow, when Ryan was cleaning out his office, he may have suggested a project idea using old 3 1/2 inch floppies. The idea took off, and took OVER.

First, this required a trip to Spanish Fork to acquire a whole bunch of old floppies from Grandpa Erickson. Lucky for us he’s a pack rat who never throws anything away (even worse than Ryan) so he HAD several boxes of the disks to give her.

She mapped out her design and started to paint.

My counter was her place of choice to paint, and things looked like this for a couple of days. Patient, aren’t I? Not really. I couldn’t STAND having those disks all over the counter for too long, and made her move the whole operation to the basement, where there is a whole table she can use.

I came home from my show one night to find Ryan and Megan working in the basement. Wonder what’s going on, I thought. It’s time for these people to be in bed.

I found that they had gotten this thing started. Ryan has been a great help to her on this project. He said he felt like he owed her that much since he kind of put the idea in her head. They had gone to Home Depot to get baling wire, a shower curtain rod and hangers, and he had made 360 s hooks for her to hang this thing.

On the floor, she had the rest of the design all laid out. I have to admit, it’s pretty cool.

If you don’t know what that is, it’s a dragon character from the old game “Bubble Bobble.” Kind of obscure, but if you like old video games, you might recognize him.

The next night there was more progress, until Monday night she finally got this huge thing finished.

And on the back..

As you can tell, it’s VERY big. Right now it’s a “screen” between our family room and the rest of the basement. I have no idea how she’s getting that thing to school to pass off, or what happens to it then. It’s currently attached to two of our light boxes. I am impressed that she finished it, and that it turned out so well. Not that I want it hanging in my family room for the long term, but it is interesting.

Maybe she could find a buyer.

So, if you are possibly in the market for a very unique piece of “recycled retro video game art”, give her a call.

Hair!

August 11, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

We are halfway through our run of the Scarlet Pimpernel at the Scera Theater, and my hair is different every night.

One night it looked like this when I left the house.

Which I liked, but by the time I sweat and change my clothes 5 times, it ends up pretty flat.

It looked like this by the time I came home.

Another night it started out looking like this.

Which was pretty good. Here’s our group shot of our ‘family’. We are the family of the Marquee de St. Cyr.

But when I come home, it’s looking more like this.

Every time I do a show I end up buying new hair products to try to keep the hair from going flat. And bobby pins. I buy 2-3 packages of bobby pins every time I do a show.

Friday night it looked like this when I came home. Still trying to hold it’s shape.

Saturday I didn’t wash the hair, but threw it into a ponytail for our family adventure. It looked ok…

(But you aren’t looking at my hair here, you are looking at the puppies, right? SO CUTE!!!)

Until we ventured up to the top of the Memorial Hill in Midway.
We looked like this.

Windy, right. Right.

AFter a whole day of family stuff, the family dropped me off in Orem and I went to the theater with straight, albeit windblown hair. I went to work with product and a curling iron until it was mildly acceptable. Oh, and a bumpit. To my my hair go even higher. It was not as high as these girls, I tell you.

As I was driving home after the show, I pulled bobby pins out of my hair. Yes, I can do that with one hand, so I’ve still got one hand on the wheel. Don’t worry.

Ryan and Megan were still up and working on this big old art project that I will show you in a different post. But my hair was pretty dang scary at that point.

No pictures of how it looks today, because it’s a day of rest. No hot rollers, no curling iron for the straight hair today. Hopefully I don’t do too much damage to the hair over the next two weeks with my ratting and spraying and curling. It’s times like this that I look upon those with long and thick hair with envy. But I will deal with what I have, and try to keep taking pictures of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

Chinese girls

August 7, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

After all the changes that we’ve been through in the spring, losing both Cole and Larissa, I wasn’t hip for hosting any exchange students this summer. Let’s just have a nice quiet summer with the four kids, right?

Somehow the family thought it would be fun to host again, even though I told them over and over again that I would NOT be around, since the hosting was at the same time as our final rehearsals and opening of the Scarlet Pimpernel. Ryan assured me that he would be fine, even if I wasn’t around. Ha.

A few things were actually in my favor this time.
#1-Carpool. I actually had a lady from Alpine call me and say that she and another lady each had vans and were willing to carpool, they just needed a third person. Hooray! With each of us housing two students,that’s 6 kids to haul back and forth, so you really need a van or big car to be able to carpool. Last time we did this, I was kind of late in finding a carpool, and could only find someone with a small car, and the driving was unbearable. This time, I had to drive only 9 times. Hooray! I told them that I needed to drive in the mornings, since afternoons get crazy, especially when I have to turn around and go back to Orem for rehearsal, so mornings were best. But it was dang hard getting myself and the girls up to leave by 7:30 each day.
#2-Distance. The home base school, where all the classes and activities started, and our place to pick up and drop off, was at about 800 North in Orem. While that’s still a ways away, it’s better than driving all the way to Provo, or BYU. On a good day, I could make it there in 20 minutes.

#3-Megan could drive herself and her sisters to the buddy program. They always do a buddy program with American kids, and this year three of my kids were old enough to do the buddies. There were 5 days of activities that they did together, although my kids flaked on the Seven Peaks day. They just didn’t want to go, and said it wasn’t as fun as in past years. But whatever. I didn’t have to drive them!!! Hooray!!! Megan couldn’t drive the Chinese girls anywhere, but she can drive her sisters.

I feel bad that I wasn’t around to take them to do fun things. In fact, the last week, I would only see them in the morning, as I would be leaving by the time they got back. But Ryan was GREAT. He took them and John to see Despicable Me 2, took them bowling a second time, brought everyone to the theater to see a dress rehearsal of my show, and took them to yogurt. He took everyone to the parade and Fireworks for the Highland Fling. He even took them to fix a broken ipod case. What an amazing guy!

Hopefully they won’t look back at their time here and think, that was boring.

On their last night here, we invited over another host family and our new carpool buddies, and had a barbeque. The girls came alive with friends to talk to, and everyone had a nice time. That night we even all played “Mafia” in the basement.

Although we were a little unclear on the rules, it was fun.

Monday morning I took them to school for the last time. I gave them both hugs and Yao said sweetly, “We will miss you!”. I hope we can keep in contact with them. It’s always fun to send Christmas cards to our foreign friends.

Of course, it’s NOT fun to mail them stuff that they forgot. We found a camera in the back yard after they had gone, and now don’t know how exactly to get it back to her.

Trying to avoid the Guillotine, night after night.

August 4, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

Whew! Made it through the week, and what a week it was. On the rehearsal schedule it’s called “Tech Week”, but most people refer to it as “Hell week” because it’s…well…difficult. Rehearsals run long and tempers run short when adding costumes, lighting and sound, scenery, and hair and makeup to. Yes, those are the things that really make a show come alive, but it’s an adjustment.

It started last Saturday, when, after having rehearsals at the outdoor stage all week, we had to come in on Saturday morning to record the singing onto the tracks, and then have a scene change rehearsal. Everyone learns what scenery they are responsible for, and when those things need to come and go.

Here’s a model of the set, and all these set pieces change and move and turn around to change from England to France, a ballroom to Percy’s office, and even a boat. The set, REALLY is amazing. But, to get everything changed around…well…that’s pretty amazing, too.

There are four pages of this kind of notes, telling us who is assigned to each piece of scenery and when to move it where. It’s quite amazing, actually, and we have our stage manager Julie to thank for that. But we had to rehearse the on and off, and when those things come, and it was getting very hot and sweaty. I think we stopped at 1:00. We had to come back at 6:00 for another rehearsal.

By Sunday, I was wiped out, and enjoyed sleeping in, and a pretty restful day. Well, restful if you could church, nursery, then a trek fireside. But no rehearsal.

Monday morning I had start my week of driving the Chinese carpool. I was supposed to have the girls ready to go by 7:30. We may not have always left by 7:30 every day. Had to pick up four more Chinese kids and take them to their school in Orem every day, so there was no sleeping in.

I kind of dragged through the days, taking a naps when I could. At about 4, I started curling my hair. Some days I drove to the theater with hot rollers in my hair. It’s still kind of a work in progress, and the hair changes every night.

It would start out curly like this

One of those days I convinced Ryan to drive the morning carpool for me so I could sleep in a bit, and by opening night I was at least not SNEEZING all over every one.

http://youtu.be/JVOpqCdbIac

Kudos to Bryson, who made this video of the cast before opening night. I wish I didn’t look so GROUCHY, but considering I felt like crap, well, what else should I expect. I love seeing everyone ELSE in the video, and love the music.

Saturday was a LONG day with breakfast at the park for Highland Fling, a Parade (which I had to skip), a wonderful funeral for my friend Diana (hopefully I’ll write more about that later), then a bridal shower for our niece Camille that we aunts were hosting. I went straight from there to the theater for our second show. I didn’t do any singing on stage, because singing makes me cough, and if I start coughing, it’s not pretty. But that’s ok. They can do without my voice for a bit. Just typing that makes me ready for a nap.

So today is Sunday. It’s our last day with our Chinese girls, and we were going to do something fun, but I was seriously just so tired, so we decided to just go to church and spend the day at home, then invite the other host family and their girls, as well as my parents over for dinner tonight. I was coughing a bit much in church, so I came home after sacrament meeting, and brought the Chinese girls with me. I had a heavenly nap.

I’m looking forward to THIS week. Yes, we have performances on Monday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday, but that means we get Tuesday and Wednesdays off! And we send the exchange students on their merry way tomorrow morning, so that will eliminate that added pressure (mostly on Ryan, since he’s been the one taking them places. Friday after we all went to their closing social, he took them to the mall AND to fix a cracked ipod screen. He’s awesome!)

S0, if you are local, I sure hope you’ll come and see our show. It really is GREAT. I’m a tiny part of the show, but I still love being part of the show. I may complain about how tiring it is, but it’s such a great experience.

For Diana

July 29, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

My heart is filled with sadness and confusion today. I found out yesterday through facebook that a friend of mine had passed away. I thought it was a joke when a mutual friend posted something about how much she will be missed. What? Is this a joke? I read on to see post after post about her sudden and unexpected death. How could this be true? She was healthy girl, in her 20’s. How could she be gone? I started asking questions, and while there are no answers yet, we know that she died in her sleep. Just didn’t wake up on Sunday morning.

So full of life and fun. I met her when I did Seussical at Alpine Community Theater, and she was there with me in every play since.

She was so happy and helpful, and we got to be friends through the show.

(Annie get your gun)

When our two months of rehearsal and the play was over, I would see her through the rest of the year at the grocery store, or we would occasionally go out for a movie with the girls.

In Wizard of Oz, we got to be Apple Trees together, and we had SO MUCH FUN, both on and off stage. I laughed SO hard with Diana and Felicia. They are both wonderful girls.

One of the things I love about a play is that you get to know so many different people. Yes, it’s long hours at rehearsal, and for many of those hours, it’s just sitting around waiting while other people are on stage. While it’s long and boring, that’s when you get to know people.

Here she is in her Cinderella ball gown. She’s really not that tall, she’s just standing on a chair right before I cut off the bottom of her dress for her.

Diana and I have shared make-up, hairspray, bobby pins, done each other’s hair, helped each other into costumes, all the while laughing and having fun.

As I read what friends are posting about her, it makes me smile and cry at the same time. Bill said,
A wonderful young woman in our neighborhood, who we have known and loved for nearly fifteen years, died unexpectedly in her sleep last night.

Diana was as vibrant, funny, and kind-hearted a person as I have ever met. We attended church with her, worked and performed with her in community theater for a decade, and saw her several times a week at the grocery store where she worked, and she always had a smile on her face and something kind to say.

Our children huddled around us yesterday when we leaned about this and wept. She was one of those rarest of people – a radiant personality and someone truly without guile – and she left us too soon.

I wasn’t in the play last year or this year, but Natalie loved being in the show with “Mom’s friend Diana”. Even though Natalie’s only 14, she was kind to her, and they laughed together as well.

Here she is with Susi (another friend from a few shows). Full of enthusiasm and life.

I wait to hear when the funeral will be, and to read her Obituary.

I guess this is a reminder to not squander our time here on earth. To tell those who you love HOW much you love them. To make time to see your old friends, and not to take your family for granted. To treasure those relationships and be nice to everyone. My heart grieves for her family, but takes joy in the fact that they will see her again some day.

Thank you, Diana, for all the joy you shared with me, for making me feel comfortable in some uncomfortable situations, for your love of Mama Mia and all things theatrical. Thank you for your friendship. I can’t imagine our little community theater without you. Much love until I see you again.

Slow down, summer!

July 25, 2013 / Superpaige / 1 Comment

Summer is kicking my trash.

Seriously. The two Chinese girls have been here for a week now. What cute girls they are!

Their names are Xiou and Yio, and they are really fun. They have “school” every day where they learn about things in America, and then go off on an activity. Yesterday they went shopping at Park City outlets. They had fun, although said it was TOO much shopping. They came home with quite a few shopping bags, so they must have made the most of their time. This week they also had fun at the Clas ropes course. Today they go to BYU. Some of the days, my three girls also go with them as American buddies. Megan had fun at the ropes course, but she was WAY sore the next day.

They are pretty good about getting up in the morning on most days, but I’ve had to wake them a couple of times. They need to be ready to leave by 7:30. This week I haven’t been driving..yet. But next week I’ll be on mornings, and will have to pick up four other Chinese kids and take them to Orem by 8:15 am.

We have been bowling, shopping at City Creek, went to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir concert in the conference center, hiked around bridal veil falls,
and out to dinner.

We took them to see Natalie’s play, Peter Pan, which ended on Monday, too.

One of them really wanted to cook, and when they saw John making an omelet one day, they were amazed. So, on Saturday, I taught them how to make an omelet.

We took them to church, and a little family party at my sisters. For Pioneer day we did sparklers and pop its out in the front yard and watched the nearby fireworks.

This morning my girls left for girls camp for three days. All three of them!!

Meanwhile, I am gone every night at rehearsal.
We moved over to the outdoor theater this week, and it’s fun to perform on the hill, but so different. I’ve never done outdoor theater before.

When we aren’t on stage, we sit on the grass on our blankets.

The show opens in just over a week!! What?

I had my costume fitting this week, and I LOVE my dresses. Except my peasant outfit, which has this corset thing. Not sure how I am going to get IN and OUT of that thing, but I’ll keep you posted.

I get home from rehearsal between 10 and 11, and then I have to decompress a bit, so I fall asleep around midnight. Then I have to get the girls up around 7 and get them breakfast. Next week I’ll have to drive them to Orem every morning, after later and later rehearsals. By about 1:00 in the afternoon I’m SO tired, I tend to crash and need a nap. Not every day is nap conducive, I tell you.

And have I mentioned our yard work?

It’s mostly Ryan doing it, but the rest of us have helped, too.
Once we got our fences up, it was time to landscape that back fence line.

All 280 (Is that right Ryan?) feet of it.

Ryan tilled it, trenched it, put in sprinkler lines and power outlets, and is digging out the rest of the weeds so we can lay down a layer of newspaper and then mulch. I’ve kind of lost track of the number of truckloads of mulch we have gotten, but I think it’s around 10. Not like dump truck loads, just our small truck filled with compost from the recycle center.

And there’s our tomato plants in the buckets. There are more in the garden area, too. Soon. Very soon, we will have tomatoes.

Silly chickens think I planted these flowers JUST for them to eat. Argh.

And remember this kitty? She’s been with us for a whole year, now! Happy Birthday?

So, yeah, things are crazy busy for me right now. And I’m tired. So tired. But I know it will just get worse next week. If I can make it through rehearsals, then actually DOING the show will be fun. And our visitors will be gone, and I’ll have a couple nights a week off. Just in time for school to start. Slow down, summer! You’re going to fast, and dragging me along behind you!

Peter Pan

July 23, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

I should let Natalie guest post this.

Took the kids plus one cousin to see Natalie in Peter Pan.

Great show!

Two of my friends as pirates. I could have been a pirate. Darn. It would have been SO much fun.

Natalie had a great time in the show. It’s been kind of a pain to get her to rehearsals, and she’s missed out on a few fun things, but that’s what happens when you do a play (don’t I know it). She did a great job and we are Proud of her.

July 18, 2013 / Superpaige / 0 Comments

It’s so hot, I just saw an elderly woman walk through the sprinklers in the garden section at Target….

Author: Superpaige (Page 21 of 180)

First day of school 2013

Here’s to many more years together

Some call it retro. Some call it art. Some call it junk. Not sure what we call it, but it’s done.

Hair!

Chinese girls

Trying to avoid the Guillotine, night after night.

For Diana

Slow down, summer!

Peter Pan

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